Return to Sender

Mari is the oldest of the three Cruz sisters. She is 11 when the novel opens. Mari starts school in Tyler’s class at Bridgeport Elementary, though she is unable to finish the year. She was born in Mexico; her parents brought her into the United States without completing the necessary steps for legal immigration. Mari was only four when she and her parents came to the US, but she recalls some parts of the journey, including the coyotes, men who led them across the border. Mari has two younger sisters, Ofie and Luby, who were born in the United States; consequently, they are US citizens.

Mari enjoys writing. She writes long letters to her family and to Tyler, and she also writes in the diary she receives for her birthday in May 2006. These letters and diary entries comprise Mari’s first-person sections of the story and balance Tyler’s third-person narrative in each chapter.

Mari feels the weight of many conflicts as the story opens. She knows others deem her “illegal,” and she is cognizant of her father’s and uncles’ stresses as undocumented workers. They fear arrest and deportation but must work to send money home to Las Margaritas, Mexico, where grandparents and extended family still live. Worse, Mari’s mother has been missing for many months when the story opens and is not discovered and ransomed until spring. Mari worries for Mamá and misses her very much; in Mamá’s absence she assumes a caretaker role with her younger sisters. On top of these conflicts, Mari starts sixth grade at a new school where she knows no one except Tyler.

Despite these problems and the emotional weight they carry, Mari is kind, helpful, and hopeful. She speaks in consistently grateful terms about the Paquettes as her family’s patrones and about those who step forward to help her uncle and parents when they are apprehended: Señora Ramirez, Mr. Rossetti, Aunt Roxy, and Uncle Tony. Mari is already wise and mature beyond her years due to her experiences, but she still experiences a coming-of-age in her growth and mindset. When Mamá finally comes home, Mari must adapt and accept that Mamá’s experiences and trauma as a hostage of the coyotes require significant time and patience from the family. Mari must also overcome her fear of her own illegal status and the potential consequences of it to appear before the immigration official, Mr. O’Goody. Her desire to save her parents and reunite the family drive her to this decision. She demonstrates heroic qualities like self-sacrifice and seeking and finding the object of a quest.

Tío Felipe is Mari’s young uncle. He works with his brothers, Mari’s Papá and Tío Armando, on the Paquettes’ dairy farm. He is a good-natured and happy young man who often jokes and plays his guitar, Wilmeta. When Tyler’s brother Ben invites Tío Felipe to a party at Ben’s university, the two are stopped for speeding in Ben’s car. Tío Felipe panics and runs. He is caught and apprehended by immigration officials. He spends the Christmas holiday in prison while his family and the Paquettes work with a lawyer to have charges dropped. Through their help Tío Felipe avoids a lengthy sentence in the US. He is deported to Mexico in January.

Tyler’s grandmother is a strong and self-assured woman. She is still grieving for her husband, Tyler’s grandfather, who died suddenly in June just before the story opens. She finds solace and healing in the company of the “three Marías,” who teach her about Day of the Dead customs, posadas traditions, and other holidays and details of their culture. Grandma insists on staying in her own home when Aunt Jeanne tries to force her to move in with one of the family members. Grandma helps the Cruzes in turn when Tío Felipe and Mari’s parents are apprehended by ICE. Later, she announces she will go to Mexico with her church’s youth group, and consequently, she and Mr. Rossetti visit Mari’s hometown after the Cruzes are deported. Grandma is a dynamic mentor archetype who rises from her own grief to help the Cruzes and teaches Tyler lessons in acceptance and healing.

Tyler’s parents are static characters in their desire to keep the farm, but they allow for change. They are immediately devoted to the safety of the Cruzes and seek the best interest of the Mexican family; their concern and respect is evident for individual members of the family and for the family as a unit. Tyler’s father, Abelard Paquette, whose bitterness over his accident and subsequent incapacitation for farm work tinges his characterization throughout the novel, respects the Mexicans as strong, tireless, and generous workers. Tyler’s mom takes active measures to assure the comfort and safety of the Cruzes, especially the three girls. She instructs Tyler to bring them board games, invites the girls to stay at Grandma’s after Thanksgiving dinner, and helps with Christmas shopping for them. Both of Tyler’s parents attempt to intervene the night the immigration officials apprehend Mari’s parents and take them into custody.

Papá is a dynamic character, as he undergoes emotional changes that affect his decisions and temperament throughout the book. While he is mostly patient and kind to family members and appreciative to the Paquettes, his younger daughters’ reliance on American comforts drives Papá to enforce a Spanish-only TV rule. He becomes embittered by the trauma of Mamá’s imprisonment with the coyotes in Texas, as he can do little to save his wife from her traumatic circumstances and must raise money from other family to procure her release. His negativity and hopelessness are evident when he snaps at Tyler on Mari’s birthday and later attempts to fight the ICE agents who swarm the trailer. Mari tells Tyler in her July 2006 letter that she is happy to have Papá back; in other words, once back in Mexico, Papá returns to his usual kindness, as he is happier and more hopeful for a positive change in the family’s future.